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tv   Andrea Mitchell Reports  MSNBC  October 10, 2012 1:00pm-2:00pm EDT

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in benghazi. contrary to early assertions by the administration, let's understand, there was no protest and cameras reveal that and the state department, fbi and others have that video. >> we need to carefully, very carefully, investigate allegations that have been made over the past week and we need to run them to the ground before we jump to conclusions. we should not be about the business of drawing conclusions and then looking for the facts. >> storming the battleground, mitt romney plants his flag in ohio where new polls show he is within four points of president obama. his wingman today, chris christie. >> now we're down to the time where everybody is paying attention. now we're down to the time where the lights are the brightest, and the american people have to decide what's their future?
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>> president obama in ohio trying to rally the base at ohio state asking residents to vote early. >> the bus is around the corner that can get you there and back. don't wait. do not delay. go vote today. >> seriously off message the romney campaign tries to clean up, the governor's comments to "the des moines register" about abortion. >> do you intend to pursue any legislation specifically regarding abortion? >> i don't -- there's no legislation with regards to abortion that i'm familiar with that would become part of my agenda. one thing which i would change however which would be done by executive order not legislation, i would reinstate the mexico city policy. >> affirmative action, civil rights group rally as the supreme court revisit also race can be a factor in college admissions. and won't you be my neighbor? late night's jimmy fallon visits mr. romney's neighborhood.
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>> it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. beautiful day for a neighbor. would you be mine? could you be mine? hello, neighbor. you see this? it's called a wallet. inside of a wallet, oh, that's where money goes. now, do you know what money is? i'm guessing no, because you're watching public television. >> good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. the house republican hearings on last month's terrorist attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi are under way now on capitol hill. chairman darrell issa opened the hearings demanding answers from the state department about their response to the incident. as well as the amount of security personnel in place before september 11th. >> we know that the tragedy in benghazi ended as it did. we now know that, in fact, it was caused by a terrorist attack that wasp reasonably predictable to eventually happen somewhere
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in the world, especially on september 11th. requests for extensions of more security by the mission in libya, however, appeared to have often been rejected. >> al know the chairman claims -- although the chairman claims we are pursuing this investigation on a, quote, bipartisan basis, that has simply not been the case. chairman has w had held documents that were provided to the committee which is in violation of the house rules. to say they are resorting to such petty abuses in what should be a serious and responsible investigation of this fatal attack. >> joining me now from outside the hearing nbc's capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell. kelly, there are a lot of charges of politics here. so far what's happened in the hearing? we're hearing from the witnesses from eric nord trom, andrew wood, former security -- former and current security officials who said there was not enough security at the embassy? >> that is really the core of the issue. was it foreseeable that there was a greater danger that needed
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to be met by additional security? we're hearing there were concerns by some of those who were a part of ambassador stevens' immediate group talking about issues that they had. there's also been just moments ago, some discussion about whether some of the information being presented is classified or not. so there are lots of political overtones to this. very complicated because there are lives that were lost here. there was service to the country from these fine americans who were there and who were killed and so everyone is trying to trade a bit lightly on that. but there is a lot of politics mixed into this along with the committee's responsibility in oversight to look for answers. there was frustration among some republicans that the state department put out a detailed timeline but not included members of the committee. frustration among democrats who say that one of the members jason chav fitz went to libya but no democrats involved on that trip. there are complex ish shis and don't expect to have all of the
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issues. they want to shine a light on things, worries among those closest to ambassador stevens and those on the ground concerned at the time. they're trying to highlight earlier instances where there were worries about security and even smaller level attacks. one of the things republicans are trying to emphasize is that this was not about the video as many people thought initially that's been sort of the rolling explanation from the administration. as you know the state department said that was never its position. they're trying to get at how did that become the public story in the first week or so. it is a sparsely atenned hearing because members of congress are largely back home and those running for re-election some did not choose to come back, some of those who are here either have positions on the committee, don't have a tough race, or in a couple cases aren't running for re-election. so it's something to watch here. there may be some new answers but probable lay lot more questions when this is done. andrea. >> there's been a lot of finger pointing behind the scenes inside the administration.
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the white house says ask the state department about it. the state department says we have our narrative and implicit in is what the u.n. ambassador susan rice said on television in that five days later actually about it being a spontaneous demonstration responding to the video, a copycat demonstration of what had happened earlier in cairo was not correct, and then they in turn from the u.n. mission keep saying there was an intelligence memo and everyone is standing in a circle pointing the finger elsewhere. >> it has the same sort of ethos of what happened after 9/11. when you go back and look -- the original 9/11, a lot of data points that might have been able to point to a danger here, point to some issues related to security. we see this now because this was a country that had been involved in historic revolution, had been a hot spot and we're being told that ambassador stevens had
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wanted greater security. some discussion about when the duty date for some of the members of that security team had expired that he had requested more, that was not done. some of the issues about resources, about judgments made at the time. now that something this awful has occurred, it puts a different light on things. that's where some of the politics is coming in as they try to dissect what happened and what the administration has been saying about what happened. andrea? >> and fact nancy pelosi has been saying more than $300 million in requested security this year's budget was refused by the republicans and another more than $100 million in the previous years. so there is going to be a lot of blame sharing at least. >> that budget fighting certainly plays into this. >> kelly o'donnell, thank you so much. thanks for being there. and it has been almost a decade since the supreme court landmark decision to permit race to be considered in college admission decisions. the court will hear -- is once again hearing an affirmative
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action case involving public university. this time it is the university of texas at austin. a white student abigail fisher rejected from the school claims the admission process was unconstitutional and this time, sandra day o'connor the moderate justice the centrist who spearheaded the majority decision upholding affirmative action almost ten years ago is no longer on the bench. joining me is nbc's justice correspondent pete williams. bring us up to speed. >> justice o'connor no longer on the bench but was in the courtroom. i would like to know what she's thinking after this morning's arguments. there were really two questions before the court. one is, are they going to overrule that decision that she wrote nine years ago for a closely divided court that said while generally speaking government can't make a distingsion on race it can do so in school admissions because getting a racially diverse campus provides a better education. that was the court's holding. after the argument today it seems clear the court is not going to go and overrule that
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precedent but the problem many of the justices had is how do you know when you have enough diversity. the university of texas has an unusual system. it automatically admits anybody who graduates in the top 10% academically of any high school in texas. that gets a fair amount of diversity on campus because many of those schools tend to be racially more uniform, predominantly black or hispanic and tend to get versity. the problem for perhaps the majority of the justices how do you know when there's enough diversity. what the school says is, we don't want merely diversity in numbers. we want african-american students who are interested in fencing and speaking greek and studying architecture and hispanic students who are great fencers or ballet dancers. we want diversity in other words within the mere racial numbers. and i think for a majority of the court the question is how do you know when you're there, how do you know when you no longer need affirmative action. in a sense it was the question left unanswered in the court's
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decision nine years ago although that decision said maybe in 25 years we won't need this, and i think for many justices on the court the question is do we still need that kind of intense affirmative action now. one other note i would just say, elena kagan sat this out. just eight justices so if there's a tie the university of texas prevails because it won in the lower courts. did it seem like five justices are going to say we need to take another look at this university of texas system. >> the university of texas system could decide in narrow way this system is special or different and not make it a universal ruling that affects all universities. i want to say that from my own knowledge your knowledge, we're both active in university decision making and admissions and universities argue and we'll hear from the university of texas austin president who spoke after the arguments, bill powers, they argue that
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diversity is a value not only for the minorities, so-called minorities, but that white majority students get a better education from being educated in a complex class, that this is a better education and better preparation for the world at large. that is part of their argument. let's hear from president powers from the university of texas. >> hour lawyers made the case to the justices that the diversity ethnic and otherwise, benefits all of the students on our campus. we made the case and the university of texas has crafted an admissions policy that includes race as one of many factor factors and meets the strict guidelines established by this court in the decision nine years ago. >> the grudser decision the plaintiff in that case in the university of michigan you referred to. when do you think we would be getting decisions?
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this will be something decided some time this spring, you think? >> could be by december. it has the advantage of being argued early, only the second one week of this court's term but this is going to be a tough one. i would say yes, not before next spring, maybe at the end of the term like when all the other big ones come out. >> and, of course, everyone watching closely and these are usually unformed opinions from the outside speculating that justice roberts after what happened on the big final decision of last year's term on health care, will be wanting to prove his bona fide to the majority again and a lot of noise out there which -- >> of course this is all -- and he's already been on record many times as calling -- these sorts of affirmative action this sort dids business of dividing us up by race. he looks scent taically at affirmativioe action programs. >> mitt romney is barn storming through ohio with new jersey
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governor chris christie, but it's what he said about abortion in iowa yesterday that could be causing headaches for his campaign today. joining me now, chris cizilla, msnbc contributor and managing editor of post politics.com and ruth marcus. ruth, first to you, we're talking about abortion and seen in some considerable movement in the numbers, the polling numbers, at least the pew poll about women and the closing the gender gap, for mitt romney, is this another case where he was trying to pivot? moderate mitt and might be too much to bear for conservatives who are not yet spoken out? >> it might be remoderate mitt. remember back in massachusetts, he said he was supportive of the right to abortion and so there's really -- i think this could be an issue for him with certainly a certain element of the conservative movement other than taxes and for some of them even more than taxes abortion is the
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litmus test issue. it's also the issue on which governor romney has been absolutely totally positively the most flip floppy and squishyist. what he said yesterday was not exactly a flip flop back. it was essentially saying i don't have any legislation in mind. >> a lawyerly comment. >> at the top of my agenda. it's true. he hasn't proposed legislation and he also didn't say he would veto something that came from him. as we saw in the debate last week it is a definite shift in tone, a shift in tone that could appeal to both women voters and other independent voters who are trying to decide who this guy really is. >> chris cizilla, on that point, as to who this guy really is, andrea psaul issued a response saying -- what is your take away from all this? >> i think what he is trying to do is he understands -- and i
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would say this goes to the prominence of ann romney of late as well, he understands that women are absolutely essential he's not going to win them but he cannot lose the em bay wide margin. talking about abortion in that regard saying i'm not -- basically he said i'm not going to do much on this. it's kind of settled law. with suburban women who may be worried about president obama, the direction of the country, may be looking for a change, it's the way to say i'm not scary on this. i'm not going to try to restrict your rights here, not going to try to overturn settled law. you know i think he runs some risk on the right. for some conservatives this is the only issue. that said, i think the calculation is, look, are these people going to vote for barack obama? probably not. are they going to stay home? probably not because they
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believe so strongly that you need to get obama out and that ultimately conservatives may not be thrilled about something like this, mitt romney saying something like this on abortion, but what choice do they have but to vote for him? >> now mitt romney again said something on the campaign trail today about his brief encounter with glen dougherty one of the former navy s.e.a.l.s. who died in benghazi and said yesterday he met him at a christmas party that he they had something in common, went to the same places to ski, that he admired him, spoke of doherty's commitment to the middle east, love for the region and public service. we talked to his sister katie yesterday and she was okay with that but maybe second thoughts on the family different family members have a different reaction. but barbara doherty, glen doherty's mother in massachusetts spoke to our nbc boston affiliate whdh and said --
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now this is a very difficult moment, but maybe the romney campaign might want to rethink his commenting about this two days in a row on the campaign. >> no question. i would say look, andrea, this is the danger when you start getting into the loss of lives, and politics. i would say everything is fret with politics this close to the election. i can't imagine the romney campaign greeted that statement from his -- mr. doherty's mother
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with a thrilled reaction. it's hard when you're talking about people who lost their lives. why domestic affairs broadly is a little bit easier in the political realm, less risk talking about it than foreign policy of we've seen this play with kelly o'donnell in her report about libya. we've seen this play out for both sides in that regard. it's just such dangerous territory. >> we're seeing on capitol hill today it's very clear, ruth, that politics is not completely enveloping the benghazi story. >> forget about the water's edge stuff. it is enveloping it and that's not surprising and it's obviously as kelly said envel e enveloping it from both ends questions about funding. to get back to mrs. doherty's comments i would be surprised if we hear mitt romney bring up that episode and that meeting, that sort of a what a small world it is we live in meeting again because you do not want to get on the other side of a
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grieving mother and talk about the mama grizzly in all of us if she doesn't want to hear him bring up her son he needs to cut it out right now. >> perhaps this will be the last word on that. >> i think so. >> ruth marcus, thank you. >> chris cizilla, thank you. up next biden versus ryan what's at stake in tomorrow's bluegrass debate. join us tomorrow live in danville, kentucky, for the vice presidential debate. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. these fellas used capital one venture miles for a golf getaway. double miles you can actually use... but mr. single miles can't join his friends because he's getting hit with blackouts. shame on you. now he's stuck in a miniature nightmare. oh, thank you. but, with the capital one venture card... you can fly any airline, any flight, any time. double miles you can actually use. what's in your wallet? alec jr? it was a gift.
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i look forward to watching the vice president tomorrow. i know he's eager to it. i think he's going to be have to be on his toes because my guess is you're going to see what mitt romney tried to do which is paul ryan congress beman ryan walk
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away from the positions he's held during the campaign and give a softer image for the american people. >> and there are real challenges for both sides in tomorrow's big bluegrass debate. for paul ryan it's defending had his own record as well as mitt romney's record. they're different. as joe biden tries to remain gaffe-free and make up for the president's poor performance last week. and joining me now, democratic strategist and president of divine, and phil, republican consultant and president of new frontier strategy both whom have been debate preppers in the past. what was going through your mind when watching president obama last week? >> listen, i think as his campaign has conceded it was a tough night for the president and governor romney did well. what i was thinking they're going to have to pivot. we're at a pivot point in this campaign. a lot of the republicans who probably would have wound up with romney anyways have made the polls closer and the vice presidential debate will be an important one. >> and what would your advice be to joe biden in terms of being
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tougher but not too tough? what is the mix that he has to get through? he's got a pretty rich amount of material to go through because if he wants to go after the ryan budget cuts and medicare plan, number one, not the revised, those could be pretty powerful weapons according to the mainstream, you know, conventional thinking. >> my advice would be number one, you have to put the romney/ryan record on display and go after it and put out the inconsistencies in it. number two, defend his record and the president's record over the last fou years. >> that's the harder point. >> but i think the vice president's in a strong position to do that, he was in the room, on the day osama bin laden was taken or on the day when the president was inaugurateded and losing 800,000 jobs a month. number three, he has to draw a vivid contrast about the two different futures we can have under obama or romney as president. >> that's what we did not here last week. phil, you were pleased with last week's performance. >> sure. >> but now what is the challenge for paul ryan? we've seen in the past with dick
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cheney and john edwards, for instance, that the older, more evun cular, political figure has some advantages at a seated debate against a younger fellow even though ryan has a lot of experience. >> i expect biden to come out very aggressively. the obama campaign has been thrown on its heels. everyone looking for a lifeline from biden to course correct this campaign. but at the end of the day, congressman ryan's challenge and look, going back to biden's experience, you know, two presidential campaigns elected to the senate at 29, taking office 30, great debating society in our country and had history of democracy, joe biden has got a lot of experience doing this. that said, congressman ryan has been working hard, he's been preparing diligently and i think he'll come out and paint a clear choice. if we want to have a choice discussion and i think tad illustrated that joe biden was in the room for a lot of the big issues and decisions of this campaign. the problem is, a lot of the big issues have been left unresolved
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and the president has done virtually nothing on the key issues that are taking our nation on a very perilous fiscal path. to the degree the discussion frames around that, congressman ryan will be a great position to talk about romney's future forward looking five-point agenda for the middle class and that's what i think you'll hear. >> tad, does joe biden have a problem, favorable/unfavorables upside down, 51% unfavorable to 49% favorable where paul ryan is 40/44. >> i wouldn't just take one poll. i think vice president biden is someone who the public knows well. he's been in the public eye a long time in the senate and now recently as vice president. i think he's got strong standing authoritative standing. i watched cheney in the two vice presidential debates there for both of them against lieberman and edward and he had his way with both those guys that night. wasn't saying so at the time but it was obvious. i think joe biden is similarly situated. he can make a strong authoritative defense of the president's record and also take on frankly some of the things that governor romney said last
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week that just aren't true like his tax policies don't benefit the rich. so i think he's in a good position to make the argument and forcefully. >> now, phil, there are those moments where you've come off a debate or a speech or television broadcast and you think, oh, why didn't i say that, would have, could have, should have. back to new hampshire when you were coaching tim pawlenty and the first new hampshire debate where he previewed he was going to be tough against mitt romney and talk about obamaeny care -- >> what are you doing to me here? >> could you relate a little bit to the fact that we all expected the president to be tough and aggressive and he wasn't? and did that happen back then in your camp? >> let me just say that i think that the debates are really fundamentally important. they were very important in our primary in terms of the demoments in the key trajectories who we chose as a nominee that led to mitt romney's election. i think this is a see with your
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own eyes election. if you look at the advertising spending it's moved the needle fairly narrowly in the swing states then you see a commanding performance by mitt romney last week, and a, you know, anywhere from an eight to 12-point bounce depending on what poll you might look at that shows that voters are paying attention, they're really focused on the issues and on the choice and on the future. that's why watching the behavior out of the obama campaign over the last couple days, i have respect for everyone who runs these campaigns i think the oxygen is getting thinner in chicago and the big bird ad yesterday was a really quicked soic and strange response about small things at a time when america is looking for big solutions. and so if this debate is about big solutions for the future paul ryan will do a terrific job for laying that out for the romney campaign and romney vision and not looking to defend other issues from the past. he's part of this ticket and we have a clear message going forward. >> we have to bring you back
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after the debates. thank you both very much, tadd and phil, great to see you still ahead the unanswered questions about that attack in benghazi. and up next, smack down down under. the prime minister's fiery tirade goes global. >> time for the your business entrepreneur of the week. former model and goldman sachs analyst created shop teaks, a fantastic marketplace that helps local boutiques that don't have their e-commerce sites sell on-line. content sells so she launched a companion on-line magazine as an ultimate source for what's in. for more watch your business sunday morning at 7:30 on msnbc.
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no. if he can't, no one can. that's why ally has a raise your rate cd. ally bank. your money needs an ally. topping the headlines on "andrea mitchell reports" the u.s. anti-doping agency will soon release evidence to support its decision to hand lance armstrong a lifetime decision an erase his titles. 11 of his teammates testified against him. the usada says the investigation revealed that cyclist was at the center of the most sophisticated and professional doping program in recent sports history. lance lance armstrong denies it. australia's prime minister julia gillard has defended her attack on opposition leader tony abbott saying enough is enough. she accused abbott of sexism in
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a fiery speech in parliament yesterday that has drawn global praise. some are focusing -- accusing t p.m. of playing the gender card. >> the labor opposition says people who hold opposite views are not appropriate for high office. i hope the leader of opposition has got a piece of paper and he is writing out his resignation. because if he wants to know what ma someny looks like in modern australia he doesn't need a motion in the house of representatives. he needs a mirror. that's what he needs. s. >> and nfl veteran and actor alex care ras had died today at his california home at the age of 77. he suffered kidney failure in addition to cancer and dementia. he anchored the detroit lions 12 seasons and known in hollywood in his roles in "webster" and the movie "blazing saddles" and
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up next the state department's evolving timeline in benghazi. follow the wings.
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get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. after nofour weeks of mixed messaging the state department came out with a different story about the night that happened september 11th. this is a detailed account of heavily armed mill shish las invading the compound. joining me is michael lighter nbc news terrorism expert. michael, what do you know from the -- from your -- excuse me -- from your sources about what happened that night? >> andrea, i think people are seeing, as the reporting gets more and more clear that this was coordinated, that it was probably independence to protest, but it's still difficult for anyone to know what the exact motivation was. likely associated with al qaeda
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associated groups, but whether or not it was planned just before the attack, whether or not this was planned for weeks ahead, that's what the intelligence community is still really does not know. >> at the same time, they had -- they had real-time individual, they te -- video on the security cameras of groups of heavily armed men invading the compound, setting off cans of diesel fuel that the smoke was so thick that the ambassador retreating to a bunker was on the ground, with his security officer, and couldn't breathe, couldn't see, they then retreated further to a bathroom, which had an exterior window, tried to get out through the bathroom. it's a horrendous story. and then similarly, more people attacking them with ak-47s when the surviving four agents tried to drive after the compound was beginning to fall, drive to that an next, maybe two kilometers
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away. it's very clear that this was very well organized and knew that in real time they were on the phone at the -- from the operations center on the phone with washington and with tripoli, minute by minute. so there was never a question that this was a demonstration or a copycat demonstration. >> no. i think that's -- i think that's right we know that now andrea. from the video now it's very easy to piece together. i have sympathy for the officials trying to explain what happened, how it happened, how it might have been linked to protests, having lived through more than a few of these terrorism related crises before, trying to get a clear story, know the facts, it always looks so easy and so clear afterwards. but in the midst of this, actually knowing where the attackers are coming, from how organized they are, you're also getting these reports from cairo, now we look back on it and, you know, you can plot out this as a very organized attack and from the very start, it
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looked like it was not just a protest, that this was an organized effort by an armed group of people to attack the people inside the consulate. knowing that at the time, again, i have sympathy for the folks on the ground it's not entirely clear until a little bit later on. >> we should stipulate that the, you know, $300 million was cut from the state department's budget request for security this year alone and they did have five security agents with ambassador stevens when he was there in benghazi. he felt safe. he felt there because he had spent a year there during the war contrary to early reports that were leaking from the hill he had no security. so there's a lot of politics also in play here. you've been around and you can see what's happening. >> yes. and i'm going to do my best to stay out of those politics, andrea. i will tell you that over two administrations, the bush administration and obama administration, we always knew
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that u.s. consulates and embassies are absolutely prime targets for terrorist attacks. we've seen this before in the bush administration, we had attacks in the consulate in karachi and pakistan in saudi arabia, in jeddah, in syria, and elsewhere throughout the region. so this is not entirely new. we know the threat is there. i think what we've seen in libya is, obviously a government which still had a real challenge in using its own forces to protect the limited u.s. presence and very legitimate questions now about the degree of security that was there at the embassy. from what i understand, there still was no long specific actual intelligence about this attack, but it's quite clear there was a threat in libya generally, a specific threat that we'd seen over the previous couple months in benghazi, and now obviously the congress and the executive branch have to look hard and see should that security have been heightened, but as you noted, the diplomatic
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security within the state department has long been a target of budget cuts and it is really hard when you have hundreds of embassies and consulates around the world to know where you should have resources when. after the fact it always seems clear but before it is a lot tougher. >> michael, thank you very much for your wisdom and experience. up next, widespread outrage around the world about what happened in pakistan after a 14-year-old girl was shot for speaking out against the taliban. [ cellphone rings ] [ female announcer ] with secret outlast, conquer your busy day. burn, let's do it... ♪ hi. [ female announcer ] outlast your day any day. with secret's 48 hour odor protection technology. secret outlast.
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and while on cymbalta, call right away if you have high fever, confusion and stiff muscles or serious allergic skin reactions like blisters, peeling rash, hives, or mouth sores to address possible life-threatening conditions. talk about your alcohol use, liver disease and before you reduce or stop cymbaa.lt dizziness or fainting may occur upon standing. ask your doctor about cymbalta. imagine you with less pain. cymbalta can help. go to cymbalta.com to learn about a free trial offer. a pakistani school girl who took on the taliban advocating for girls to be educated is now in intensive care after a taliban gunman boarded her school bus and shot her in the head and neck. a taliban spokesman claimed responsibility saying they wanted to kill the young activist. malala yousafzai for at least a year. >> they cannot stop me. i will get my education if it is in home, school, or any place.
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>> this 2009 interview with journalist adam alex was one malala gave as one of pakist's best known, most outspoken and youngest critics of the extremist forces ravaging her country. >> it was very scared that the militants threw acid on my face they can do anything. >> she refused to let fear silence her. in her diary translated and published by the bbc 11-year-old malala described life under taliban rule. i was afraid going to school, she wrote because the taliban had issued an eeds it, banning all girls from attending schools. she went anyway inspiring others to do the same. her diary was not nominated for the international children's peace prize. >> coming from a child, it's innocent, it's honest, it's open, and i think that's what was so threatening. >> nbc's anna nawaz is in kabul. you prepared that report for "nightly news" and all of us
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were riveted by the tragedy. what do you know about her condition today? >> we're learning today that malala is not yet out of the woods. doctors tell us that they were forced to perform an emergency surgery over night in the wee hours of the morning to remove a bullet that was lodged at the base of her neck where it meet hers shoulder. they did say that surgery was successful. she remains in intensive care. but they also say that the next few days of her recovery are critical. so while malala remains under tight security, still unconscious inside a military hospital in peshawar, outside those walls what we're seeing is the rest of the country is erupting in anger. they're supporting her and rallying publicly against the taliban and their brutal attack against the child as she left school yesterday. we've seen strong condemnation from government officials who offered up monetary rewards for any information leading to the attackers and we're seeing army officials rally behind malala. the head of the army general
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kayani, paid her a personal visit today and vowed afterwards to defend the values she herself had spent the last few years defending. >> that is very important signal as well. thank you so much for your reporting. the attack on malala yousafzai only underscores the significance of today because it is the u.n.'s inaugural international day of the girl child. events focusing on the discrimination and violence girls face every day around the world often for simply pursuing basic rights like an education. marking this event today secretary of state hillary clinton joined by archbishop desmond tutu cited malala's heroism. >> yesterday's attack reminds us of the challenges that girls face, whether it's poverty or marginalization or even violence, just for speaking out for their basic rights. >> joining me now, malan risk veer, the state department
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ambassador at large for women's issues. a position that you have created and expanded and traveled around the world to many of these very, very dangerous places. let's talk about malala and what she represents because you've spent time in pakistan, spent time in afghanistan, you know about the attempts to expand girls and women's rights and also the entrenchment in some parts. >> first of all, it's a barbaric be act that was committed against her. she like so many other girls, desperately want to go to school. they want to be able to have full lives. they want their potential to be able to be tapped. and they don't want to be circumscribed by the kinds of things that are happening whether in pakistan or in afghanistan. i think the fact that in pakistan, the leaders have spoken out so strongly whether the military or the government is a very good sign because what these actions must get in response to them is the kind of commitment on the part of
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leaders that these are crimes, these cannot go on, they must be prosecuted, these are matters where justice really needs to be done. there are many, many of these kinds of acts, violence girls i epidemic. and we have to stop marginalizing the kinds of actions and understand what a toll they take on human rights, what a toll they take on the lives of people whose lives are shortchanged as a result. they take tolls on economies, on public health. these are very, very serious matters. and they really deserve attention at the highest levels of government. >> well, i can attest to the fact in every place hillary clinton goes, she does an event with women or meets with people and reaches out so she's made a mainstream issue of diplomacy. now she is talking today about a global initial to end child marriage by 2030.
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talk to me about that. >> it exacts a toll on girls. one in seven girls under the age of 15 in the developing world is in a child marriage. that means in many ways the life is snuffed out. she doesn't get an opportunity to go to school, to enjoy all the things she should be guaranteed. it also means very frequently that she will bear children very early. she will more often than not suffer terrible health consequences. often death. and the children that she has will also be shortchanged because she herself lacks an education. so today was a wonderful observance as you said the international day of the girl. and it was a commitment that the secretary made in the presence of archbishop tutu which is the chairman of the elders, you know, the great former leaders who have come together. they have made a commitment to ending child marriage by 2030.
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and we were joined by representatives of foundations by other u.n. representatives, by representatives of the u.s. government, like a.i.d. all of whom significant commitments to addressing the huge problem and one of the biggest antidotes we know to keep a girl in school because if she stays in school and gets an education, there will be less opportunity for her to find herself in the circumstances of so many other girls. so huge commitments today to keep girls in school and help them transition to secondary school. >> thank you so much for what you're doing. thank you for being here. >> thank you, andrea. >> an important giday. we'll be right back. campbell's soups give you nutrition, energy, and can help you keep a healthy weight. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do.
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adviser telling nbc news the governor will no longer be talking about glenn dougherty knowing that mrs. dougherty is not happy. see you on the debate. thank you very much. that does it for us. out of time. this edition of "andrey mitchell reports." we'll see you tomorrow live in kentucky for the vice presidential debate. my colleague tamron hall at the debate, also. see you tomorrow in person. >> absolutely. all right. our next hour in president obama's first major interview since the debate, radio icon tom joiner asks the president about the debate performance. the headline, quote, i was just too polite. we'll play what the president said including his description of his strategy for debate number two. plus, ann romney coming out swinging 24 hours before the vice presidential debate. she is now accusing democrats of, quote, poor sportsmanship coming to accusing her husband of lying. news nation gut check. who do you think is under more
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pressure? vice president joe biden or congressman paul ryan? "news nation" is up in three. but when joint pain and stiffness from psoriatic arthritis hit, even the smallest things became difficult. i finally understood what serious joint pain is like. i talked to my rheumatologist and he prescribed enbrel. enbrel can help relieve pain, stiffness, and stop joint damage. because enbrel, etanercept, suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have occurred. before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if, while on enbrel, you experience persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. [ phil ] get back to the things that matter most. ask your rheumatologist if enbrel is right for you.
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